There has already been a startling number of mass shootings in 2023. The recent shooting at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville marked the 129th one this year alone, according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive.

Last week, 28-year-old Audrey Hale attacked the Covenant School with two assault rifles and a handgun before being fatally shot by police. Six people were killed in the tragedy, including three nine-year-old children: Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney. The other three victims were in their 60s and have since been identified as Cynthia Peak, Katherine Koonce, and Mike Hill.

Several lawmakers — and even President Biden himself — have offered their condolences in response to the tragedy. “We have to do more to stop gun violence. It’s ripping our communities apart. It’s ripping at the very soul of the nation,” Biden said at the U.S. Small Business Administration Women’s Business Summit following the news.

But there are some ways to prevent school shootings in the first place, according to Beverly Kingston, the director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado Boulder.

“A term that we talk about in research is a term called collective efficacy. And that term is about being willing to get involved to take action on behalf of your community,” she says. “In communities that have higher rates of collective efficacy, they have lower levels of violence. So the more people stand up and take action, the better off we’re all going to be.”

In a conversation with Katie Couric Media, she outlined three main ways communities and schools can better protect themselves.

Teach students and adults to report the warning signs of violence

Kingston says there are ways to gauge whether someone could be a potential threat to mass violence. While bullying and a sudden interest in weapons can certainly be warning signs, there are less obvious clues, like if a person is struggling with grades or acting out of character. 

“There is such a huge role the community at large can play in addressing the warning signs for violence,” she tells us.

Develop and promote around-the-clock anonymous tip lines

There are a number of local anonymous tip lines, like Denver’s Safe2Tell, to report your concerns. Typically, these are passed on to school officials or law enforcement, who then determine whether a report poses a potential threat.

“We want every kid to know what their system is — they’re not everywhere, so there is still a need to make sure everybody has access to an anonymous way to report,” says Kingston. She believes it’s crucial that the schools encourage the use of these systems, however. “The school needs to say, ‘We want you to report any concerns.’”

Empower students to speak up

If a student has any concerns about a threat, Kingston says it’s safer for them to find a trusted adult or make an anonymous report instead of trying to figure it out themselves. And it could make all the difference — she says there were 69 missed opportunities to intervene in the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. 

But kids may need to be convinced that it’s OK to speak up. “Schools also need to reinforce that they want people to report any concerns, and say, ‘We want all of us to do that. That’s our culture. It’s not tattletaling, it’s about the safety of us all. We’re not trying to get people in trouble. It’s really about trying to get people help and support at the earliest points possible so it doesn’t go on to be a situation where they do get in trouble.'” She adds, “when it gets to the point of mass violence, it harms everybody in such a huge way. So the more we all can work upstream so that doesn’t happen, the better off our society’s gonna be.”